


Black, Grey, Off-White and Technicolor

by phosphorescent_plant



Category: Persona 5, Persona Series
Genre: (minor ones though like before 11/20), American Politics, Assassination Attempt(s), Hawaii, Mementos (Persona 5), Metaverse (Persona 5), New Palace (Persona 5), Persona 5 Spoilers, i really don't know what the hell i'm doing, the allegory runs thin but my patience runs thinner
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-21
Updated: 2020-12-21
Packaged: 2021-03-11 00:33:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,053
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28206156
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/phosphorescent_plant/pseuds/phosphorescent_plant
Summary: What if the Phantom Thieves went international? What if they got into political drama, bounced around a new part of Mementos fused with a Palace, and stopped the corruption of rich people out on vacation, all on a tropical island?American politics and Persona 5 collide in this medium-length fic over the length of the Hawaii trip. This is going to have 40k+ words when it's done.From a writer who thinks that the Hawaii trip was a missed opportunity for fanfic writers, is a massive nerd about both Persona and politics, has strong opinions about societal trends, and realized that the game took place in 2016, of all possible years.And I promise I didn't thematically rip off Hotel California.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 2





	Black, Grey, Off-White and Technicolor

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, this is my first fic. No, I have no idea where or how well this is going to go. Yes, the allegories will be very transparent. 
> 
> But I'll at least try my best to tie it all to wider social trends so there's a redeeming quality for you but if you got this far I'm assuming you want to read it so good luck.

“Welcome to our newest segment, Phantom Watch!”

The news station happily blared as the jingle woke Ren out of bed early in the morning. He did this to himself. Certain people had spam-texted him a link to a news site doing an analysis of his team of vigilantes. He could have decided not to watch, but… no, he couldn’t have. So he was sleeping, headphones plugged into a laptop at his desk at six in the morning, when the Total Tokyo news network jingle woke him up.

“Wondering how to get exclusive information on the Phantom Thieves? Curious how they stopped Medjed? Need to know their next moves? Want to join our exclusive community dedicated to these brave individuals reforming society one theft at a time? Stay tuned, for the next hour, or get our mobile app, PhantomWatch, available on all devices, or text 500 to 800-742-6866, or visit us online at totaltokyo.jp” -- here the newscaster mistakenly said “backslash” -- “phantomwatch. Now for our full report.”

Ren blinked. This was a lot to take in this early in the morning. Morgana was out, and Sojiro wasn’t there, nor was his newest adoptive family member. Scrambling to an upright position, he watched the livestream.

“For our first story this morning, let’s take a look at the Phansite. For those of you who don’t know, and our international rebroadcasters, the Phantom Thieves are a group of vigilantes who, using unknown methods, affect the conscience of society’s malicious actors to have them show remorse for their crimes. It is unclear how they do this, but their vigilantism has not gone unnoticed, nor unappreciated. After making their first appearance in late April of this year, the Phantom Thieves have shown up on the world’s radar after, most recently, preventing a country-wide crash of the stock market that would have been undertaken by forces of evil. The everyday business people of Tokyo have been saluting them, and although the downfall of their latest target, hacker group Medjed of worldwide notoriety, has not been forthcoming in confessions except as to exert the exposition of one of their co-conspirators, the opinion of the Phantom Thieves is very high right now, especially on the web.”

The camera cut to a video of people outside a crowded convenience store in Shibuya. “You know they have a website where you can ask for a change of heart for someone? They even have a vote where you can choose. That was what got me into it,” said an interviewee. The camera cuts back to a computer graphic, with a voiceover. “We decided to go surfing the web for front-line news about the Phantom Thieves.”

The beginner-level information about the Thieves faded away from the livestream’s screen. Ren exhaled. Things were going well. He had finished a heist just a week or two ago, gotten a new member, and, for what it was worth, expanded the Phantom Thieves from a local trend to a worldwide sensation. He got up, leaving the computer on but connecting it to a speaker Futaba had installed on the lower level of the coffee shop he lived in. 

Curry would have to do. Legends eat curry. There was nothing wrong with that. Some things just shouldn’t change, he mused, as the news report sank into the background, giving needless context.

The morning was bright in Yongen, with altogether too many cats outside, and the cramped nature of the neighborhood finally managing to have the right amount of business to approximate between ghostly quiet mazes of buildings and crowded slices of life stacked on top of each other like a layer cake. Yongen was doing well. He was doing well, with school, home life, and everything else (encapsulating shady side businesses and committing outright crime) fitting together like a Jenga puzzle. But it was one not long for the world, as a trip to Hawaii the next week meant pineapples and various other tropical fruits knocking down the tower like cups at a carnival. Oh well. Curry should stay constant, life needed change.

“We’re speaking to a self-professed Phantom Thieves expert online right now,” blared the newscast, making Ren break out of his thoughts like he had broken out of someone else’s two weeks ago. He turned to try to recognize who this “expert” was, expecting a Shujin student. “You think they are going to be attempting a theft of the heart of a government official soon?”

“Yes, that’s exactly what I think,” responded the expert, and Ren was taken aback by the interviewee being an important looking adult. “Let’s take a look at some of the posts on the Phansite.” The news inflated a post to full screen. It read:

**[** **A** **d** **m** **i** **n** **]** ** _Mishiman_** \-- ** _Forum rank: Phantom Thief Hero (27,289,034 points) [Level 9+]_**

**Subject:** LATEST CHANGES AND UPDATE!!! (PHANSITE VERSION  _ QUIXOTE _ [8.0]) _[pinned]_

HeyyyyyY! *high five* Over the last few days, we’ve been preparing for the update to Phansite version 8.0, and I’ve been working around the clock to make it happen! Here’s a list of changes and new updates. Enjoy it, Phantoms! *smiley phantom emote*

  * Forum updates -- with growth comes negative comments about the Phantom Thieves, and after some serious deliberation, we have decided to allow those. Censorship is the kind of thing the Thieves want to target, we don’t want to have that here *winky phantom emote*
  * A big change: rare exclusive communication from someone involved with the Thieves themselves! Follow **@phantom** for updates. 
  * In the weeks to come expect some insider info on how the changes of heart work, written on our new FAQ by our source.
  * Phantom game nights and a new voicechat server, along with an Innocent Sin Online Phansite clan
  * New emotes drawn by our community
  * **Main feature:** New poll to the Phansite -- pick a big target who you wanna see a change in heart in! Rules: has to be a corrupt adult, has to be someone big and important



Ren sighed, then smiled. His extremely enthusiastic sysadmin had signed him up to give “insider information” on the Phantom Thieves. The newscaster highlighted the bottom bulletpoint, listed as a “main feature”.

“As you can see, the Phantom Thieves have decided to ask the people of Tokyo for input for their next heists. I say ‘heists’ tentatively because we don’t actually know what the Thieves do, but it can be safely assumed that they steal something. Now, take a look at this graph” -- the post crossfaded into a graphic -- “you can see the growing dissatisfaction with the government here. I imagine the young people this Phantom Thieves craze appeals to will agree, meaning we can safely expect the next heist to be related to the government, or other high class people, like a business person. If you’re a rotten adult and you’re in any of those sectors, be warned, the Phantom Thieves are after you.”

The camera awkwardly panned away from the man discussing this, who on reflection seemed to be high-class himself. Ren grinned. He had no clue who the next target was going to be. 

“Alright, thank you for your analysis on these special investigations. Is there anything you’d like to add?” said the newscaster.

“We are keeping an eye on the Phantom Thieves, you should know that. As long as their activities help ensure the order of the country, we will not be taking outright legal action. Whoever they are, they’ve influenced the world with their tactics, and whatever they’re doing, it seems to have caught on because lots of people are thinking about them. Let’s see how this story unfolds.”

The news went to a conclusion of the mini-segment, then a commercial break. Ren was bemused; it was the same type of news coverage they had been getting. So much for “exclusive info”. He did, however, consider it to be good that there was coverage at all. Overall, in terms of the Phantom Thieves, things were going well and getting better. As long as it was heading towards supporting justice instead of being celebrities…

_ “Whatever they’re doing, it seems to have caught on because lots of people are thinking about them…” _

He had an idea.

\--

“Are you sure this is going to work? I mean, have we even gotten that much more popular for Mementos to open up?” asked Ryuji.

“I’m sure something will happen,” said Morgana, the only other available member of the team. “Regardless, keep your guard up and stay focused. We might be able to see the depths of Mementos today, but we have a weaker team, so we need to avoid fighting. Hey, where are you going”-- he trailed off, as Ren descended into the kitchen of Leblanc and walked back up the staircase with a bucket of snacks.

“What are those for? I don’t want snack dust--”

“For eating.”

“No, that’s not what I meant--”

“You can try some once you’re a human again.”

“Ok, fine. I’d prefer eating the chocolate and you healing me if I get sick, though.”

“So the plan is to go to the bottom of Mementos as of right now,” said Ren, “then seeing if the scenery has changed at all. Public opinion has not only grown but shifted in attitude, so I have a suspicion we’ll find something there.”

“So you mean because our popularity has increased we… are more prevalent in the collective unconscious. That could be the case… but Mementos has opened up before because of a heist success. I’m not so sure, but it’s worth looking at,” said Morgana. “Alright, let’s go.”

It was time to prove the newscaster either right or wrong, thought Ren.

  
  


The now very familiar app twisted away the world beneath their feet as they walked down into the train station; the transition gradually burned their thief outfits on with familiar blue fire. Mementos looked the same as usual, except for a sense of foreboding coming from the bottom of it. That sense of foreboding was confirmed by Ren’s phone, which beeped and said “A new area has been confirmed in the depths”.

That was good. Half of what he had come to investigate had been proven true.

“Well, that’s at least some proof of this. We’re getting more popular, and not only do more people know about us, I’d guess they think more highly of us than before, if the Phansite’s poll is any indication.”

“Alright!” said Ryuji, who was at least marginally more optimistic about their mission than Ren was. “Mona, do you think the depths opened up? This place is huge. It’s gotta have an end somewhere.”

“I’m not sure. Guess there’s only one way to find out.”

  
  


_ Down, in the dark undercurrents of the world, a vermillion disk stood strong, supporting the weight of all that stood above it. Underneath it was a cavernous void one could fall through and never find a bottom. It would be wrong to say the disk was an island in an empty sea; the dark void was the disk’s core. Like a many-sided polyhedron, it had different facets and faces, and on one of them the tower and the sleeping world above it was built.  _

_ That was about to change. From some shift, an invisible butterfly effect cascading through the chasms, the disk turned on itself. Another face, with a different structure atop it, collided with the first one. They merged with a loud clang. Like digging into an undiscovered sealed underground cave, the red light from the disk now shone into the new structure, which was awash in incandescent electrical light. The two mixed. They were now tangled together like two roots latched onto the same core. _

  
  


“... Whoa! Do you feel that?!”

The feline car shook as a rumbling echoed from the depths. Ren, startled, swerved the steering wheel into the wall.

“Careful! Careful! Oh-- we’re stopped. What was that?!” said Morgana.

“Um--”

The entirety of Mementos shook to its core, this time vibrating and reverberating along some sort of backbone, moving up and down. Along the individual sections of the cavern, the tower it was made out of started to oscillate, harmonically moving like a guitar string on the nineteenth fret, until the dampening of the void made it reduce into nothing.

“That--” Ren paused.

“Something just happened to the Nav!” said Ryuji.

Ren took out his phone. In the place where the navigation interface normally was, the map of Mementos was blacked out on one side, like there was a place there they hadn’t been yet.

“Wha--” 

“Morgana, can you sense that?” said Ryuji, momentarily forgetting about code names.

“I’m… I don’t know. It feels… unknown. Like a new presence somewhere in the depths.”

“Ok, we need to check that out--”

“Hold on, Skull. We don’t know if it could be dangerous or not. We should be very cautious. Because, if my hunch is right, a whole new area of Mementos opened up -- but that couldn’t be right, the depths are below…”

That got Ren’s attention. “The new area isn’t below? You mean some new area is on the side of Mementos?”

“That’s what it feels like.”

There was silence.

“Let’s go. We should be okay, I think. And we should see what’s in the depths,” broke in Morgana.

Moving much more cautiously, the trio continued down.

  
  


The last escalator opened up from the gloom to reveal a familiar sight: a diamond-shaped door blocking further progress. The thieves stood back and observed the unexpected lack of anything new.

“Well, that’s disappointing,” said Ryuji. “Mona, you said this was…? Um, Mona?”

“Oh no. He senses something,” said Ren. Instead of staying with the other two, Morgana had suddenly lurched forward, pupils wide open, like how he always had when finding a treasure. He looked all around, scanning the nooks of the narrow train tunnel for a clue.

“Treasure…? Wait!” Tensing up, he turned his ears towards one side, where an audible motor noise could be heard. Suddenly, he ran to the right, looking up -- and, not looking where he was going, fell off the ledge into the train tracks.

“Mona! A train’s coming!” said Ren. Thinking quick, he darted over in front of the tracks, then down  _ into _ the tunnel proper, and grabbed Morgana. He looked to the train to judge its distance -- no more than thirty feet. At an estimated speed of fifty miles per hour, he had less than half a second to leave. Disoriented by the bright lights, he instead turned towards the outside of the tracks, away from the safety of the central island, and -- after flashing blue fire under his mask and getting a little wind boost -- jumping up, above the train, impossibly hanging onto the wall while scrambling for a hold. Scratching the ledge of the edge of the subway, elevated fifteen feet above the tracks, he held on with one hand while Morgana scrambled in his other, eventually catching a hold by clawing on his trenchcoat.  _ Thank god for thief instincts _ , he thought.

One of the bags of cheese snacks fell from his pocket into the train’s path.  _ Well, that’s gone now. _ He shifted as Morgana climbed up the wall. The train sped along the line, and he noticed it was one of those maglev trains; it was moving fast enough that the field was very strong. His phone buzzed, probably in complaint to the magnetic field. It probably wasn’t a good idea to stay there for long.

Ren turned back as the train passed under him, pulling himself up onto the subway accessway. Morgana did the same. “You know, I think this counts as my training for today, Skull. Good luck on your own.”

“After watching that, I have enough adrenaline I wouldn’t feel a thing. That was close,” said Ryuji.

Ren caught his breath. “Mona, are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine-- Wait--”

“That was kind of close though. Be sure next time--”

“Joker--”

“--next time you run off like that you look where you’re going. And all that without a trace of what the thing in the MetaNav is.”

Morgana stood still, looking up. “Um, Joker… take a look…”

Ren turned around and the world was suddenly bigger.

  
  


Above them stood a set of stairs leading up towards a dark stone plaza, the size of the one in Shibuya, but dead silent. Towering above it lay a golden facade of a gigantic tower, with glass windows bearing no glimpse through to the interior. It built up past the distance they could see through the dark fog below it.

“Wow…”

“Uh, guys? What are you looking at?” Ryuji hesitated. “Come on, I want to see!” He jumped across the tracks and hurried up.

“That’s… a whole new part of Mementos?” Ren got vertigo looking up at it all.

His phone buzzed again, snapping him back into consciousness. “Oh yeah, look at the Nav. It’s--” He frowned. “It’s a whole new area. It looks like-- well, it looks like an individual Palace. Morgana, what do you think?”

“I think we should come back here. I mean, we have no idea what we’re heading into. For all we know, it could be -- it probably is -- a death trap. But let’s come back with more people. We should explore.”

The thieves nodded. They turned back. Once out of the Metaverse, they went their separate ways. Ren looked over the new map that had been made on his phone, turning it over in his head how the new area fit together with the rest of Mementos. Then, he turned his phone off, unaware of what had been done to it.

_ Update initializing… _

_ Registering user key… done. _

_ Wildcard handshake with VelRm server… 23/23. _

_ Comm system online… _

_ [17:13] Message received from key 01XX_0:  _ “sys_info”

_ [17:13] Message sent to key 01XX_0:  _ sys_info

_ [17:13] Message received from key 01XX_0:  _ “This is an automated message from your security service. Please be advised that there is a breach in the fiftieth floor of the hotel that will require increased surveillance.”

_ [17:13] Message received from key 01XX_0:  _ “Wait what”

_ [17:14] Message received from key 01XX_0:  _ “Wait, shit, sorry. This isn’t an automated message. I have the wrong number.”

_ [17:14] Message received from key 01XX_0:  _ “...”

_ [17:15] Message received from key 01XX_0:  _ “You’re not a Phantom Thief, are you, fellow wildcard user?”

**Author's Note:**

> Well, let's see where this goes!
> 
> (the scene where joker picked up the kitty in the middle of the train tracks is ripped from the p5d trailer)


End file.
